Composition 14

If the Dutch in the Golden Age were mad about the tulip, the whole world, since time immemorial has loved the rose.

Their rainbow riot of colours, their symmetrical structure, heaven-sent scent and complete abundance are the botanical embodiment of beauty and means that they have been symbols of affection and love across centuries and cultures.

But the true meaning of the rose is more ambivalent. They are fleeting; all that beauty lasts but days before the bloom fades, they wilt and perish. The rose is vanitas – height of beauty, acutely aware of how fleeting a life of pleasure and the pleasures of life in fact are.

In this group garden roses of all shades – magenta, scarlet, crimson, egg-yolk and pale lemon white – burn like flaming June in their oriental pot.